FRN and our partners hit a new milestone feeding people

This spring, FRN continued hosting research Power Hours to support our friends at The Farmlink Project. Power Hours are one-hour zoom calls where volunteers help us find farm contacts in regions where surplus food is occurring and food insecurity rates are highest. This research is so important because it allows FRN and The Farmlink Project to contact more farmers and offer food recovery support so that we can reduce food waste and feed more people. With help from some of our key partners, including Aramark, Clif Bar, fairlife, Groupon, OXO, and Sodexo we recovered 3 million pounds of surplus food in six months - that’s double the impact of this program compared to last fall! 

Since January, FRN and our volunteers have identified 601 new farm contacts for The Farmlink Project. These connections were made as harvest seasons changed, a time when surplus food becomes available due to shifts in consumer preferences for produce. In the weeks and months when farmers have an abundance of products while consumer demand has dropped, The Farmlink Project will help farmers donate their surplus food, rather than letting it go to waste. 

At the same time, our work enabled The Farmlink Project to move more produce into communities across the country that are experiencing high rates of food insecurity. In total, 75% of the farm contacts that we identified operate in states where food insecurity rates are the highest in the U.S. Check out FRN’s Roundtable Talks to learn more about FRN’s ten target states and our systems change work!

Joining Power Hours is a great way to get involved in the fight against hunger and climate change, and to engage in volunteer service with friends and colleagues. Check out the impact that our friends at OXO had this year, detailed below! If your organization is interested in scheduling a dedicated research Power Hour, contact FRN’s Program Manager, Erin Price, at erin.price@foodrecoverynetwork.org.

Power Hour Spotlight: OXO

To kick off Earth Month in April, FRN organized a dedicated research Power Hour for our friend​​s at OXO, and it was an incredible success. OXO recruited 42 volunteers from their company to join this virtual volunteer opportunity with FRN, and within the hour they added over 100 new farm contacts to The Farmlink Project’s database. 

This research led to the recovery and donation of 1 million pounds of surplus food, equivalent to 910,000 meals, that would have otherwise gone to waste! Aside from helping to feed people, by engaging in this Power Hour, OXO also prevented 480.92 metric tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere, which equates to taking 1,200 cars off the road, by keeping good food out of our landfills. 

We’re so grateful to our partners like OXO for their participation in Power Hours and we look forward to hosting more volunteer calls in the fall. 

The Pillars of our Network: FRN’s Hunger-Fighting Partners

Today, I write to you in celebration of partnership and collaboration. I was attracted to the work here at Food Recovery Network, and my specific role as Manager of Stakeholder Engagement, because of the opportunities to collaborate with a variety of people and organizations all collectively committed to one central movement to end hunger and mitigate climate change. 

At Food Recovery Network, our model is collaborative, student-driven, and community-centered. Aligned with these practices, we recognize that community members and those closest to individuals impacted by hunger are best suited to serve their own communities. As an organization working across the U.S., with the opportunity to have a deep impact in communities where we have student-led chapters and food business partners, it is important for FRN to be specific in our contribution to each community. 

FRN student volunteers from Case Western Reserve University’s FRN chapter recover and donate surplus food to their hunger-fighting nonprofit partner, St. Matthew’s.

To achieve a community-centered model, FRN ensures that each student-led chapter and food business partner has the autonomy to design and implement their food recovery program so that it can fit the unique needs and capacities of their own community. In turn, our student-led chapters and food business partners connect with and donate their recovered food to local, hunger-fighting organization(s) that serve individuals experiencing hunger in their community. 

Volunteer at The Community Kitchen serves a meal to individuals experiencing hunger. Photo Credit: The Community Kitchen, Olympia, WA

These organizations are shelters, soup kitchens, afterschool programs, veterans centers, and community centers that serve the local community in various ways, including by distributing recovered food. Through partnership with these organizations, FRN chapters' food donations reach people experiencing homelessness, children and youth, students, unemployed or underemployed individuals, older adults, veterans, people with disabilities, immigrants, and other under-resourced groups experiencing hunger. This network of more than 300 hunger-fighting organizations that help to support the 42 million people experiencing hunger in the U.S. is vital to the work of FRN. 

“We are grateful that we’re able to receive food from their dining halls, that not only keeps food out of the landfill, but allows us to give it to those who need it. And at the same time, we’re able to support the pantry that is on the campus as well. It’s a partnership where we help each other by supporting each other.”

— Les Aylesworth, Director of CHOW (Community Outreach Warehouse), Binghamton, New York, partnered with the FRN chapter at Binghamton University

Recently we launched our 2022 partner agency survey to better understand and respond to the gaps and needs of our hunger-fighting partners and the constituents they serve. 

If you are a hunger-fighting organization that partners with an FRN chapter or food business partner, please take 5 minutes to fill out our Partner Agency Survey and FRN will make a $50 donation to your organization to support the great work you are doing in your community. 

FRN uses the data from our partner agencies to help ensure that our programming is attuned to supporting our community partners, always. For example, year in and year out, when FRN asked how we could best support our hunger-fighting partners beyond donating surplus food, they indicated a need for additional funding for their community programs. 

In response, FRN began to identify and implement ways we can route funds directly to our hunger-fighting partners. Last year, FRN ran a virtual fundraising campaign that raised $6,351 for a selection of our hunger-fighting partners across the country. This year, in addition to donating funds to our partners who complete the survey, FRN has launched a bi-annual Partner Agency Newsletter that is packed with targeted funding opportunities, resources, and more. FRN has also encouraged our FRN chapters to host fundraisers on behalf of their hunger-fighting partners to help engage the local community and students in supporting these organizations. 

Mwandisha Gaitor, Culinary Creator and Owner of 2 Pieces of Toast, distributing gleaned produce from 5 As Veggies & Produce as part of FRN’s Atlanta Gleaning program.

Besides funding, our partners have also continually expressed a need for fresh produce for their hunger-fighting programs. In response to this request, FRN deepened and expanded our gleaning work in select communities across the country, including Atlanta, GA and Irvine, CA. Gleaning is the act of harvesting excess fresh produce from farms, gardens, and farmers' markets and donating it to hunger-fighting organizations. In the coming year, we will continue to build upon these gleaning programs and work with select FRN chapters who glean to identify the most scalable ways for our chapters across the country to route more fresh produce to partner agencies in their communities.

“Because of the quality of food that we receive, families are eating healthier and getting well-balanced meals....with few, if any, additions.”

— Reverend Bessie Donaldson, Richard Allen Community Outreach Inc. Saturday Youth Academy, Atlanta, GA, partner of the FRN chapter at Georgia Tech who currently gleans and donates surplus produce from local Atlanta farming partners

FRN student volunteers at Georgia Tech recovering surplus food to feed local communities experiencing hunger throughout Atlanta.

As pillars of support for communities, as well as a backbone of FRN programs, our hunger-fighting partners are vital to the success and impact of our work to end hunger, every day. 

As an individual committed to helping people always, I am grateful to be in partnership with these organizations and people who serve their communities so diligently. 

If you are a hunger-fighting organization seeking food donations, please contact our team at programs@foodrecoverynetwork.org and we would be happy to assist you. 

Support the economic security of those who are food insecure

In 2021 Food Recovery Network began our partnership with Poor People’s Campaign (PPC) to elevate our collective voices. Together we are spreading the word, organizing, and activating to raise the federal minimum wage from a suppressed $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour through the Fight for $15 campaign. 

FRN’s systems change work, which is part of our larger strategic framework, FRN10X, is focused on achieving economic security for the 42 million people who are currently food insecure. We can support people who are food insecure by joining the fight to ensure they have the economic security to be able to afford the food they deserve. At the same time, many of our students who are doing the work to recover surplus food have jobs that pay an hourly minimum wage, and we need to ensure everyone’s economic security by supporting a fair minimum wage.

Our partnership with PPC supports our systems change work around economic security, and our partnership supports PPC’s work to bring dignity, respect, and fair wages to those who are poor and low-wage workers. You can read my recent blog post to learn more about Poor People’s Campaign and how we’re working together to achieve these goals.

Learn more and get involved in Poor People’s Campaign’s efforts

On June 18, 2022, in Washington DC, PPC is organizing the Mass Poor People’s Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly. Washington, DC is the homeland of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe and where FRN is headquartered. We encourage you to get to know PPC and their mission, read more about what the Assembly is all about, and make arrangements to join us if you can.

Join these upcoming special events to learn more about the Assembly on June 18:

• On April 28, Poor People’s Campaign is hosting a call just for students at 7:30pm EST so you can learn more about the June 18 assembly. RSVP for the call by clicking here!

• On May 17 I will have a conversation with PPC Policy Director Shailly Barnes, who will discuss the Assembly and how you can be involved. Shailly will be among several inspiring voices I will talk to about our collective work to ensure economic security for all of us.

I hope you can join PPC on April 28 to learn more about the June 18 Assembly, and join me on May 17 as I talk with Shailly of PPC and others to discuss economic security and what we can do to make this a reality for everyone.

Change can happen in the group chat

“Rebel leadership just means you take responsibility and perhaps it means interrupting the thing that’s just not working, and that’s really, really hard. It’s a muscle, and if you can get brave in the group chat or if you can get brave at the dinner table, then maybe you can get brave later when [the situation is more complex or difficult].”

— Sara Gray

My conversation with one of my dearest friends of 20+ years, Sara Gray, Senior Director of Communications and Marketing at the National Equity Project (NEP), has been on my mind since we first talked in early January. This is my last of three posts summarizing our conversation around equity that I want to share with all of you.

Before you read this last post, I have four asks of you:

1. This post is Part 3 of my series of blog posts summarizing my conversation with Sara. To immerse yourself in the work of equity that Sara presents to us, I highly recommend reading my previous posts before diving into this one: 

   1. Part I: Framing Cultural Words as Actionable Pursuits

   2. Part II: Get What You Need When You Need It

2. Please consider listening to my full conversation with Sara on my personal Instagram account. Sara provides so much additional texture that I didn’t capture in my blogs, and together they provide a solid immersion into what it’s like to challenge ourselves and to open our thoughts to new ways of thinking in our equity journey.

3. This conversation is part of my birthday equity walk, which is why, although the equity walk is to support FRN, I chose to have the conversations on my personal Instagram. Learn more about my birthday equity walk by reading this blog post, and please do consider participating.

4. Become familiar with the National Equity Project. I am hopeful to host Sara for a part II of our conversation on Food Recovery Network’s platform later this year.

Below is the last set of resources and thoughts that Sara shared with all of us as part of my birthday equity walk. If it’s in your budget to do so, please consider becoming a recurring monthly donor, or making a one-time donation.

“We all have the power to influence and we need to step up.”

If there is ever doubt that the system isn’t working for us, I offer two data points. First, from a Food Recovery Network perspective, 42 million people are food insecure right now. And second, we know that 42 million people are not consistently making the wrong life choices, or don’t want to work as many of the myths around why people are poor will try to tell us. Forty-two million people not having consistent access to the food they deserve is designed into the system; it ensures some people will go hungry. 

When I asked Sara how we can redesign a system that is not working for far too many of us, she didn’t bat an eye at such a large question. Sara started by interrogating the scarcity mindset that we have all been inundated with, which tries to convince us that it’s okay that so many people are hungry, or that this level of hunger is normal. I believe that when we even begin to normalize millions of people being hungry, then the system is not working for all of us. Sara noted that even if the system is benefiting us right now, we still have to interrogate that system because it comes with a harmful cost for others. 

The activation part within all of this is that we can change the system. This is where we can activate our sphere of influence. I want to quote Sara in her entirety when she reminds us, “There is the collective effort and the individual effort. You have to be grounded as an individual, even if your life is chaos. Even if the systems have made your life chaos. You can remind yourself that ease is a birthright, abundance is our birthright, this earth is our birthright. If you remind yourself of that, then when you get into the systems and when you get into the spaces where you have influence, and we all have our own spheres of influence, [with] your family, in your organization, in your city…then you step up to actually see the thing that you can change; you actually have to try to change it.”

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” — Harriet Tubman

“What I love about bell hooks’ whole work, is that these systems have harmed us all. Even if on the surface it looks like you’re benefiting from them. You may be winning at the system, and you’re harmed by it. You’ve lost something in that. And that’s a baseline understanding. And I don’t think people have necessarily unpacked that if you think you’re at the top of the pyramid and you’re trying to kick people off.”

— Sara Gray

Everyone deserves an easeful life: Resources Part II

Throughout our flowing conversation, Sara and I mentioned many places we look to in our equity journey. Equity is a practice. By reading the thoughts of others who write about equity, love, systems change, hope, and design, we practice equity.

• Sara mentioned Harriet Tubman and the concept of “freedom dreaming.” To learn more about freedom dreaming, Sara recommended getting to know her amazing coworker, Brittnee Meitzenheimer, Program and Operations Manager for the Center for Equity Leadership at NEP, and reading Brittnee’s blog post about Freedom Dreaming. The concept of Freedom Dreaming that Brittnee summons is the feeling of ease that I write about in the second blog post in this series, “Get what you need when you need it.”

• My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts by Resmaa Menakem

•  “Breaking Boundaries”,  as described by Netflix, follows David Attenborough and scientist Johan Rockström as they examine Earth's biodiversity collapse and how this crisis can still be averted.

• Tricia Hershey is the creator of The Nap Ministry and discusses rest as a critical act of resistance. We’ve talked a lot about this at Food Recovery Network. My birthday equity walk aims to attract more recurring monthly donors to cover part of the expense for employer paid health insurance to our staff. Accessing medical care when employees need it that is low or zero cost is part of FRN’s equity walk, and so is being able to take time off when under the weather or when we need a break. 

• Poor People’s Campaign is one of FRN’s partners. Check out my conversation with Shailly Barnes, Policy Director for Poor People’s Campaign, to learn more about how we can all invest in communities to support them. This conversation was part of my webinar series, Intersectionalities in Practice, another place you can learn more about FRN’s equity walk and our work.

• Sara and I brought up author Octavia Butler when discussing how we can redesign a world that works for everyone, a world of abundance for everyone and where we don’t fear that we won’t have what we need. Octavia Butler said, “there is nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.”

Action steps suggested by Sara

• Notice when you experience a dissonance with a “regular system” change. Sara provided this example: Youth participants in NEP programs listed some changes they wanted to see in their lives. Sara was astonished to hear their rationale for their list because it truly bucked a lot of what we think young people will do when they are “left to their own devices.” The NEP youth said they want to be the ones to ask for homework when they feel they need the additional support in learning that homework can provide, and to move away from an automatic assignment of homework. When asked what they wanted to do instead, they said they want to continue to learn to code, or work in their garden, or talk together with their peers about the world. They were advocating for a release of their time, to reclaim that time, and for adults to trust them.

  • Here is a link to listen to two NEP Youth Advocates on the 180 Podcast - Student Voices: Fighting for an Inclusive System.

• Start a gratitude practice. It can be super small, something like naming one thing that you’re grateful for and taking a moment to talk about it at dinner.

• Follow and be led by Black women, support them, be friends with them, “it will change your life.”

Again, thank you for taking time to read and learn about my birthday equity walk. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Love health and gratitude,

Regina

Get What You Need When You Need It

“How do you reimagine the whole thing? It’s the individual and the collective efforts. You have to be grounded as an individual, even if your life is chaos. Even if the systems have made your life chaos. You can remind yourself that ease is a birthright, abundance is a birthright, this earth is a birthright.”

— Sara Gray

Framing my previous post on cultural words

In my last blog post, I shared how I approach the concept of equity and other big “cultural words” like leadership, compassion, and investment as a continuum of conversation, thought, and action. I wanted to offer this context before sharing more from my amazing conversation about equity with one of my dearest friends of 20+ years, Sara Gray, Senior Director of Communications and Marketing at the National Equity Project (NEP). 

My conversation with Sara is part of my birthday equity walk, and you can learn more about my equity walk and how you can participate by reading this blog post. Sara and I discussed the cultural word equity and the many ways that this word translates into action, thought and pursuits both at her organization and as a person practicing equity. You do not have to have listened to the conversation, which you can find on my personal Instagram account, to continue reading and learning. I do recommend reading the first post in this series to help ground my thoughts and takeaways here.

Below is the first round of thoughts and resources from my conversation with Sara.

Sara and I have been friends for over 20 years, 17 of which Sara has spent at the National Equity Project.

Defining equity provides a baseline for our practice of equity

For any of us who feel like the term equity is so big and nuanced to even attempt to articulate, the National Equity Project, where Sara Gray has spent the last 17 years of her career, offers up a definition to ground us. Their definition establishes a common baseline to begin to build our equity practice, or to bring into our practice should we already be on the journey. A baseline allows us to cross-check our actions, our thoughts, and our work, and though the practice of equity is not linear in motion, the baseline definition provides a reference point to check our progress.

The National Equity Project defines educational equity as "every child receives what they need to develop to their full academic and social potential." Sara expanded this notion of equity more broadly and it is this definition that we came back to throughout our conversation: equity is the ability to get what you need when you need it.

I invite you to pause and think about this statement with me for a moment. How do you feel reading this definition? What comes to your mind at first glance? What questions do you have? Where do you agree or disagree with this definition and why? I encourage you to give plenty of space to consider this definition as you read through this post.

Who advocates for what we need when we are young?

Sara noted that within this definition, the concept of getting what you need when you need it plays around in her mind a lot, especially as the mother to two young and incredible children. Sara asked us all to look back at when we were very young: how did someone even know that we needed something? In order for someone to know that we need anything at all in the first place, Sara emphasized that “you have to be known, you have to be cared for in order for someone to know you are NOT getting what you need in this world.”

Sara reflected on her opportunity to participate in the Gifted and Talented program throughout her public school education. The Gifted and Talented program drew from a place of excellence that should be the standard for everyone. Imagine if we all pulled whatever resources it took for excellence to be the standard for every single child. Sara spoke about how all students deserve to have their interests encouraged and cultivated the way her’s were as a child. At the same time, Sara reminded us that parents who want their children to have this kind of education are fighting for that, but the system we’ve designed allows for their needs to stay unmet because of their zip code.

Much like we took a moment to pause to consider the definition of equity, I would like us all to take a collective moment to take note of our first reactions when we bring up the notion that all children deserve excellence in their educational experience as a practice in and articulation of equity. How do you feel?

For me, when I think about educational excellence as a standard, I return to the definition of love by M. Scott Peck as noted by bell hooks in their 2001 book All About Love: love is “the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth. Love is an act of will — namely both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.” When we meet the requests of all the parents whose children are not receiving the kind of educational experience they deserve and that they are asking for, then we are all in love, and we are choosing love. We are ensuring we all get what we need when we need it.

I encourage everyone to become familiar with the National Equity Project (NEP). There are resources and tools for everyone, including tools to support the healing process of adults. NEP provides tools for us to learn to take a breath, and to examine our own systems so that we can see what is causing harm, even if that harm might be benign. We all deserve the space to examine our harm if for no other reason so that we do not keep incorporating it into how we are present or our future.

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Resources Part I

Throughout our flowing conversation, Sara and I mentioned many books that we turn to in our practice of equity. By learning from others who write about equity, love, systems change, hope, and design, we practice equity. Of the resources listed below, which have you heard of before? Did any of these resources make it onto your reading or “to research” list?

• All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks

• The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity & Love by bell hooks

• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 

  • This book is on my home library shelf, but I have yet to read this. Sara noted this book is about re-indigenizing our land. If the concept of re-indigenizing our land is new to you, or if you are interested in learning more, this is a great opportunity to subscribe to podcasts, newsletters and profiles created by our indignenous communities. I always suggest The Red Nation as a starting point.

  • Sara noted that in Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer stresses that capitalism works best within a scarcity mindset. We live within a normalized mindset that teaches us to fear that there is not enough for everyone, regardless of whether there is actually enough or not. When we act from a place of fear to get what we believe we deserve, how does that shape our thoughts? How does that shape our actions? From another perspective, when we begin to understand there is more than enough and then some for everyone, we can let go of that scarcity mindset.

  • In her practice to challenge the scarcity mindset, Sara reminds herself and her socioeconomic peers: you will have what you need, but it might mean you don’t have exactly everything you had before when we begin to think and act from a place of abundance. When beginning to practice the mindset that you will and do have everything you need, at first it might feel like something is being taken away from us as we reset. An abundance mindset means things cannot be exactly as they were before, and we probably really liked what we had before. We’ve been taught to act against anything being taken away from us. The practice of the abundance mindset asks us to really slow down and challenge ourselves to ask, is there something that is truly being taken away from me, or is this just different? There could be something that you like that just isn't good for the earth, or isn’t good for others around you. Sara encourages us to slow down and interrogate these things.

• Sonya Renee Taylor is the Founder and Radical Executive Officer of The Body is Not An Apology and an award-winning poet, activist, author and leader. Sonya reminds us that “normal never was”. When we think about coming out on the other side of the pandemic, what does that look like? The racial unrest that so many of us have felt our whole lives, or the status quo that was harmful, never felt normal to us, but to the “dominant caste,” as Isabel Wilkerson notes, it felt quite normal. As we decide what “normal” looks like, we have an opportunity to include more voices and perspectives to center those our system design has harmed and ignored.

• Nikole Hannah Jones is a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and recently filled the newly created Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University. In any equity journey, I believe that becoming familiar with the work of Nikole Hannah Jones is critical. In her own words on her website, Jones says, "I see my work as forcing us to confront our hypocrisy, forcing us to confront the truth that we would rather ignore.”

• Paid Leave for All is a national nonprofit that is fighting to ensure that all of us can take time off from work when we need to take care of ourselves, our children, our parents or others we are responsible for without fear of losing wages. Personally, for years I worked shift positions and had low-paying work, and taking time off for being under the weather seemed like a luxury. The struggle, stress, and hardship lived each day by anyone who has to go to work or face zero dollars in their wallet is real. I can attest to that, and it brings me back to our definition of equity that I want to be a reality for everyone: may you get what you need, when you need it.

I hope you found this first set of resources thought-provoking, helpful, and maybe even a little challenging. I am inspired by Sara who challenges her own thoughts about system designs and does the work to consider how we can truly shift to an abundance mindset.

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I have one more blog post planned that will wrap up my conversation with Sara. In the meantime, a reminder that this set of content is a complement to my Birthday Equity Walk. The purpose of this content is to share more about equity and I want to tie that back directly to Food Recovery Network. My goal is to activate enough monthly donors to get to $1,000 / month in recurring donations, which will help underwrite part of FRN’s employer-paid health insurance costs. You can learn more about my Birthday Equity Walk by reading my LinkedIn article.

With love,

Regina

PS. I want to leave everyone with the imagery that Sara discussed within the concept of Freedom Dreaming (my next blog post will share more). Sara brought into the conversation the work of her incredible colleague at NEP, Brittnee Meitzenheimer, and recommended reading a blog post Brittnee wrote on the topic of Freedom Dreaming. Brittnee’s thoughts led Sara to share the following: “A world full of ease, a world full of easeful things. And you know what easeful is because you know when you feel it, and you know when you don’t feel it. Everyone deserves an easeful life- not an easy life, but we deserve a system that allows things to function with ease.”